On August 19, a regular contributor to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) named Abdel Bari Atwan told the Lebanese television station Mayadeen TV:
Israel today is in a state of confusion, in a state of panic. They know very well that what happened in Kabul Airport will repeat itself at Ben Gurion Airport. But Ben Gurion Airport will be closed, there will be no planes in it…. Israelis should listen to the advice of [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah and start learning how to swim, because their only option will be Cyprus, their only option will be the Mediterranean Sea.”
British-Palestinian Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan: What Is Happening at Kabul Airport Will Repeat Itself at Ben Gurion Airport; Israelis Should Learn to Swim; Arafat Told Me in 1995 That I Would Live to See the Israelis Fleeing Palestine Like “Rats Fleeing a Sinking Ship” pic.twitter.com/Sp41KXOshk
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 23, 2021
Even more disconcerting than the on-air antisemitic rant is the fact that the BBC, a media outlet viewed by some 400 million people every week, frequently gives Abdel Bari Atwan a platform from which to spread his radical views and thus legitimize his toxic anti-Jewish bigotry.
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Atwan’s history of inflammatory comments
Atwan is anything but an obscure figure. He is a well-known British-Palestinian pundit whose day job is editor-in-chief of Rai al-Youm, an Arab world digital news and opinion website. Previously, he was the editor of the influential Palestinian-focused daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi and has been referred to as one of the “Fifty Most Influential Arabs” in the world. He is extremely popular online, boasting a Twitter account of some 2.2 million followers.
Some of Atwan’s most provocative statements include:
- In 2007, he gloated during an interview on Lebanese television that if Iranian missiles strike Israel, he will “…go to Trafalgar Square, and dance with delight.”
- In 2008, he justified a terrorist attack by a Palestinian gunman on Jerusalem’s Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in which eight students were killed, stating that it was a religious seminary responsible for “hatching Israeli extremists and fundamentalists.”
- In 2013, he told Egypt’s ONtv TV channel that “if you support the Palestinian resistance, you do not consider [Bin Laden’s attacks] terrorism. But if you are with America, Europe, and Israel, you do consider it terrorism…. It depends on your definition of terrorism.”
- In 2020, according to Atwan, America “opened the gates of Hell” by carrying out a counter strike against Iran-backed militias in Iraq.
Yet, he continues to be showcased on the BBC.
Memo to BBC: Burying bias breeds bias
Atwan’s apparent support for the annihilation of the Jewish state is but the latest in a long line of people in the BBC’s roster of staff and contributors who have been called out for making virulently antisemitic comments. A few weeks ago, HonestReporting exposed Palestinian ‘analyst’ Mariam Barghouti, who has frequently offered her ‘expertise’ to prominent news organizations including the BBC:
In May, HonestReporting prompted a BBC investigation after uncovering numerous antisemitic tweets from one of its journalists, Tala Halawa, including:
Tala Halawa is a “digital journalist” for the @BBC.
Halawa directly influences and creates news content watched by many millions around the world.
In what world can someone like this work for a professional news outlet? pic.twitter.com/r2LIHmZfF2
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 23, 2021
Following the backlash caused by HonestReporting’s exposé it was reported in June that Halawa, the Palestine Specialist for BBC Monitoring, was fired from her job over messages she had posted prior to joining the outlet — including one that suggested “#Israel Is more #Nazi than #Hitler !”
Related Reading: HonestReporting Prompts BBC Investigation of ‘Hitler Was Right’ Journalist
BBC Director: ‘Transparency is the order of the day’
To the BBC’s credit, a probe was promptly launched into Halawa that resulted in her dismissal. But the question remains: How did she secure employment at one of the world’s leading news organizations in the first place? It suggests that the BBC has either turned a blind eye to, or at the very least tolerated, a workplace culture that is hostile to Jews and their one and only state.
Furthermore, that Abdel Bari Atwan still regularly appears on the BBC suggests the outlet’s brass has learned nothing from even recent experiences.
Will the powers that be at the BBC launch an investigation, this time focusing on Atwan and his past borderline genocidal statements?
Related Reading: Shoddy Israel Reporting By CNN, BBC, CBS Leads to Accusations of ‘Ethnic Cleansing’
To this end, Tim Davie in June 2020 became BBC Director General. He subsequently presented new professional guidelines that require staff to avoid expressing their personal political views on their private social media accounts. Davie has explicitly stated that the goal of his new policies is to reduce perceived bias at the BBC.
Given Davie’s public commitment to transparency and journalistic integrity, coupled with HonestReporting’s recent findings about journalists and commentators featured on the outlet, now would be an ideal time to release the long-suppressed “Balen Report” on the BBC’s reporting of Israeli-Palestinian issues.
Though the Balen Report has been described as an internal document, the surge in global Jew-hatred makes it particularly relevant today as anti-Zionism is widely used as a cover for antisemitism.
And the first step in combating anti-Israel bias is to acknowledge its existence.
Please click here to sign our petition calling on BBC Director Tim Davie to release the Balen Report.
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